Introduction Jesus In Pink

 

I didn’t recognize who I was anymore. For the first time in my life, I had no titles, no purpose, no vision, and no businesses to define me. I was exhausted, crushed in Spirit, questioning everything I believed and thought I had heard from God. Though I was raised in the Church, being a woman gifted in leadership, business, and entrepreneurship, I never felt like I fit the mold, and I had no context for what it would be like to move into ministry. But I wanted the big assignment from God, and I believed that meant I had to do it in the Church, or at least with the Church. I wasn’t sure how God would reconcile the limiting belief system that many churches teach about women not holding the top positions in a church, but I assumed if God was asking me to do it, He would work all of that out. If you are a woman in Leadership and passionate about Jesus, I wrote this book with you in mind. We’ve whispered under our breath together, shared our frustrations, rolled our eyes at the comments and the advances, cried together when the promotion didn’t come our way, and we’ve sat in churches knowing God didn’t wire us to be “less than” the men, second in position or quiet and silent.

The morning of September 2021 I woke up and Jesus met me in a vision. He said “I know you have been writing a book on unity in the Church and that’s important, but I need you to put it down and write a different book first. Unity cannot happen until my daughter’s step into position”. I debated the merits of this seemingly abrupt shift and rather childishly said to Him, “fine then, but you are going to need to name it and write it because I don’t have anything else left in me”. I jumped in the shower and the audible voice of God said to me, the name of the book is “Jesus In Pink”. I giggled and then I had a long cry. I needed to know in that moment, that Jesus did and does represent, stand for, walk with, defend, advocate for and would march with Women today, if He were here. Only He knew the details of every horrendous story over my lifetime where I had reached the pinnacle of leadership, many times as the only woman in the room, only to be shut down and denied the top positions because I was a woman. And only He knew the depth of the tears, frustration, and anger that I experienced as I picked myself up time after time to restart and forge forward on the next new path hoping it would be different.  And only He knew that I had resolved myself in 2009 to do things His way and go “all in” on His plans as I shifted my gaze from business to ministry, trusting Him with the outcome. I didn’t know then exactly how He would ask me to write about the change, but I knew I was uniquely qualified on the subject, and that it had to mean He had a plan to restore women and shift His Church.

 
 
Tammy Vallejo